The problem with Omisore, by lawmaker

A MEMBER of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ipoola Omisore, has said the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, is not as bad as being painted in the public.

The lawmaker, who spoke yesterday at the weekly “Time out with the press” organised by the House of Assembly Correspondents in Alausa, Ikeja, alleged that the governorship candidate lost his bearing because of his ambition to be a governor.

Ipoola Omisore, who claimed to be an uncle to the PDP candidate, said the Omisore family had always been of the progressive genre.

According to him, the patriarch of the family, who was his grandfather, co-founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in the 40s.

He said the Egbe Omo Oduduwa later transformed to Action Group.

Iyiola, he added, was also a deputy governor under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the party’s financier.

“But because of his ambition to be governor and because he was not patient enough, he left for a conservative party.

“Omisore family is a very large family and is a political family of the progressive genre and Iyiola himself was also in the progressive camp. But his ambition took him to the conservative camp,” he said.

The lawmaker added: “Iyiola is displaying the attributes of the political party he belongs to while I display the attributes of my party.

“He is my brother. I am not saying he cannot be governor, but he should wait and come back to his family party, the progressive party, where our father belonged. He has strayed away to a strange land. He should come to the party where he can be governor and not a party that does not care about the people.”

On the Osun governorship election, the lawmaker said: “We know that PDP is not more popular than us in Ekiti. There were so many lapses in that election, like the over-militarisation of the entire process, the permanent voters card issue, which INEC skewed in favour of PDP and other tricks of Fayose and, of course, we played into their hands.

“But we have learnt our lessons. We can go to court to stop soldiers from being part of the electoral process henceforth. In Osun, we have to block all observed loopholes.

“But Aregbesola is closer to the grassroots, he is more grassroots than Omisore. All this latter day Okada road shows cannot help him. I pray that one day, Iyiola will come to my party and I will support him to get whatever he wants.”